The present invention relates to environmentally protective enclosures and, more particularly, to enclosures for environmentally protecting cable connections and the like.
Partially sealant-filled environmentally protective enclosures are employed to protect cable connections. Such enclosures may be used to environmentally protect the connections between telecommunications signal transmission cables, the electrical power transmission cables, etc. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,763,835 to Huynh-Ba, et al. discloses a gel-filled enclosure including a pair of cavitied bodies that are hingedly connected and closable in clam shell fashion. When the enclosure is closed about the cables, gel is typically displaced and thereby elongated and seals about a cable splice or the like. However, such enclosures are typically adapted to suitably seal about a limited range of connection/cable sizes. Additionally, for relatively large connections and cables, the force required to close an enclosure about the connection/cables may be unduly large.
It is also known to provide overhead multi-tap (multiple tap) closures for use with electrical power transmission cables and the like. Most overhead multiple tap connectors only provide an empty plastic housing, separate from the connector (conductive component), which only provides touch protection for the energized connector with very limited corrosion protection of the connector or its tap screws. The connectors may corrode due to being exposed to the outside elements and the utility linesman may not be able to remove a tap cable from the connector due to corrosion of the tap screws to a point where they are no longer removable. This generally requires the tap cable to be cut or the connector must be cut off the line entirely.
Tyco Electronics (TE Connectivity) offers a product line, called Gelport™, which provides entry for multiple cables into a connector and a separate cap to allow access to the screws. In addition, Tyco Electronics (TE Connectivity) offers a product line, called GHFC, which seals a connector in a gel-filled plastic box after it is installed on the line.